WAVES / TIDE

one minute
tears bubble up
in your throat
wanting to jump out
like a fish
trapped in a bucket

the next
life looks and feels
so good
it tickles the soles of your feet
and makes you
want to dance

then you go
for a pee
and a sigh
deeper than a well
comes out of you
leaving you weak and empty

and then
a bird flies
very close
to your window
your eyes fill up
with feathers and light

the next moment
that long
to-do list
compiled with such glee
only yesterday
and want to go to sleep forever

how can we
keep up
with this tide
how can we
learn to swim
among such waves

as part
of everything
you cannot help
but feeling
this unnerving unrest
should not be

we have patterns
engraved
onto us
within us
all over our ancestral
memory

and while
we well know
eternal peace
stasis
can never be
of this world

we also know
at a deepest
visceral level
these new restless
chaotic patterns
were not meant to be

oceans die
streams go insane
winds blow
unprecedented rage
has been trying to wake us up
to make us see

and while
you sit
through another
senseless
idiotic
work meeting which could have been an email

you feel
all the death
and insanity
and rage
streaming through you
swallowing you up

how are we supposed
to keep up
with this silly
pantomime
disavowing ourselves
shutting us up

while the waves keep on swelling?